Hong Kong police, protesters locked in university standoff as Global Affairs confirms Canadians 'affected'
The latest in Hong Kong:
- Tensions high at Hong Kong Polytechnic University as police, protestersin standoff.
- Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam says she hopes standoff will be resolved 'peacefully.'
- Global Affairs Canada confirms Canadians are 'affected.'
- Protester at university tells CBC News Network there is no trust between law enforcement and protesters, says police want to 'quiet the movement.'
Dozens of Hong Kong protesters staged a dramatic escape from a university campus sealed off by police on Monday by shimmying down plastic hosing from a bridge and fleeing on waiting motorbikes as the police fired projectiles.
Many more anti-government protesters remained trapped inside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and two prominent figures were allowed by police onto the campus late on Monday to mediate, a sign that there is a growing risk of bloodshed.
"The situation is getting more and more dangerous," Jasper Tsang, a pro-Beijing politician who is the former head of Hong Kong's Legislative Council, told Reuters soon after he arrived at the campus.
As he spoke, big explosions were heard and flames flared up at a distant part of the campus. In streets nearby, protesters rained down petrol bombs, burning parked cars and the front of a Standard Chartered Bank branch.
Global Affairs Canada said toCBC News in a statement that it is "aware of Canadians affected and we are in contact with local authorities."
Asked if those Canadians have been arrested, injuredor are still protesting, a spokesperson would not comment, citing "provisions under the Privacy Act."
The University of British Columbia confirmed in a statement Monday that 11 of its exchange students have left Hong Kong and the 21 remaining in the city are safe and accounted for. An official says they are assisting the studentswith travel planning.
Montreal's McGill University, whichhas a partnership with Hong Kong Polytechnic, says all 17 of its students are accounted for.
The University of Toronto andQueen's University in Kingston, Ont., are alsourging all of their exchange students to head home.
Tuesday morning,Hong Kong's embattled leader, Carrie Lam, said she hopes thestandoff can be resolved peacefully, adding that she had told police to handle it in a humane way.
She also told reporters about 600 protesters have left the university campus surrounded by police, while about 100 remain inside.
Hong Kong's work week started with multiple protests that disrupted traffic, and schools remained closed because of safety concerns. There was a temporary lull in the pitched battles for control of the Polytechnic campus as the emphasis shifted from battering the protesters with tear gas and water cannons to waiting for them to come out.
For days, protesters have fortified the campus to keep police from getting in.
Officers repelled one attempt Monday morning with tear gas, driving a few hundred protesters back onto the campus.
Before dawn on Tuesday, police allowed a group of minors to leave the campus after their high school principals secured a promise that they could go home safely. Police took down the teenagers' details and they could still face prosecution later, local broadcaster RTHK reported.
The teens, some wearing masks to protect against tear gas, were seen hugging their principal as they left the cordoned-off university campus.
Authorities said that 154 people were arrested over the weekend, bringing the total number of arrests since the protests began five months agoto4,491.
"These rioters, they are also criminals. They have to face the consequences of their acts," said Cheuk Hau-yip,commander of Kowloon West district, where Polytechnic is located.
"Other than coming out to surrender, I don't see, at the moment, there's any viable option for them," he said.
Cheuk said police have the ability and resolve to end the standoff peacefully so protesters should not "try their luck."
Antony Dapiran, a journalist who has written a book about the protests in Hong Kong, saida number of demonstrators moved toward the university Monday in a bid to show support to the demonstrators at the campus.
Dapiran told CBC News Network police met theprotesters with tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets and bean-bag roundsto try to keep them away from the campus.
WATCH: Police arrest protesters in Hong Kong
The black-clad protesters hurled petrol bombs as they tried to get to the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, occupied by activists during a week withthe most intense violence in five months of anti-government demonstrations.
"We have been trying to rescue them all day," a young man in a blue T-shirt, cap and spectacles told Reuters as he wasrunning down Nathan Road, the Kowloon district's main commercial street. "They are trapped in there."
'I can't abandon them'
Tang Siu Wa, a protester inside the university, told CBC News Networkthere is fear and desperation inside the campus. Trust between police and protesters is totally lost, she said.
There is a path to leave the university, she said but those who take it risk arrest.
"They want to arrest a large number of protesters," she said. "They want ... to quiet the movement."
WATCH: Protester describes the atmosphere inside the campus
She said police weren't trying to come into the campus, but were trying to isolate protesters and limit their access to supplies.
When asked whether she would stay to the end, she said she had chances to leave the campus but decided to stay.
"I don't want to leave the youngsters," she said. "They are the age of my son or daughter ... and they are fighting for the future of Hong Kong.
"I can't abandon them."
Dapiransaid parents of the people trapped in the school wentto the police lineto try toget ontothe campusto check on their children. Police did not allow them to pass, he said.
Mask ban struck down
Protesters won on a legal front Monday when the high court struck down a mask ban imposed by the government last month. The court said it did not consider anti-mask laws unconstitutional in general, but in this case, the law infringed on fundamental rights further than was reasonably necessary.
But Tuesday morning,China's top legislature said Hong Kong courts have no power to rule on the constitutionality of legislation under the city's Basic Law.
WATCH: Students leave the university, surrender to police
Many protesters wear masks to shield their identities from surveillance cameras that could be used to arrest and prosecute them. The ban has been widely ignored, and police have charged protesters with wearing masks.
The protests started peacefully in early June, sparked by proposed legislation that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to the mainland. But by the time the bill was withdrawn, the protests had hardened and broadened into a resistance movement against the territory's government and Beijing.
Activists see the extradition bill as an example of Hong Kong's eroding autonomy under Beijing's rule since the 1997 handover from colonial power Britain.
The head of a nationalistic Chinese newspaper said Hong Kong police should use snipers to fire live ammunition at violent protesters.
"If the rioters are killed, the police should not have to bear legal responsibility," Global Times editor Hu Xijin wrote on his Weibo social media account.
Anti-government protesters barricaded themselves inside Polytechnic last week. Police surrounded the area Sunday night and began moving in after issuing an ultimatum for people to leave the area. The crowd wore raincoats and carried umbrellas to shield themselves from police water cannons.
Riot officers broke in one entrance before dawn as fires raged inside and outside the school, but they didn't appear to get very far. Fiery explosions occurred as protesters responded with gasoline bombs. Police, who have warned that everyone in the area could be charged with rioting, reportedly made a handful of arrests.
At daybreak, protesters remained in control of most of the campus. In one outdoor area, some demonstrators made gasoline bombs while others dozed while wearing gas masks. Two walked about with bows and quivers of arrows, while many stared at their smartphones.
"We are exhausted because we were up since 5 a.m. yesterday," said a protester who gave his name asMatthew. "We are desperate because our supplies are running low."
A lull settled on the area as the university's president said in a video message that police have agreed to suspend their use of force.
Police set up a dragnet around the campus to try to arrest protesters, who typically try to melt away after blocking traffic or causing other disruption before police run in to grab as many as they can.
Other protesters blocked a major road not far from the Polytechnic campus to distract police and help those inside escape.
They tossed paving stones onto stretches of Nathan Road as police chased them with tear gas.
An injured woman arrested at a Nathan Road intersection for participating in an unlawful assembly escaped after protesters stopped her ambulanceand hurled rocks and bricks inside.
One police officer fired three warning shots, a statement on the police Facebook page said.
Police issued a "wanted" notice for the 20-year-old woman and said anyone who aided her could be charged with assisting an offender,which could be punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The road closure added to transport woes during the morning commute, with several train stations still closed because of damage by protesters last week and a section of one line closed completely near Polytechnic.
The Education Bureau announced classes from kindergarten to high school would be suspended Tuesday for a sixth straight day because of safety concerns. Most classes are expected to resume Wednesday, except for kindergarten and classes for the disabled, which are suspended until Sunday, the bureau said.
With files from CBC News, Reuters and The Canadian Press
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